E-IPTV, THE PERFECT FIT FOR MULTISCREEN We Deliver the Future of Television
Enhanced IPTV brings new opportunities in multiscreen world for operators and content owners Telcos, soon followed by cable operators, were first to understand the value of new services that could be delivered to consumers over IP networks. Trailblazers invested in network infrastructure as well as STBs and home gateways to provide the managed platforms that were then essential for delivering real time services such as video with adequate Quality of Service (QoS). Operators generated extra revenue through value added packages incorporating the new services, while customer relationship departments were overhauled to manage the ever more demanding relationships with subscribers. By launching video over IP services a decade ago, the first IPTV offerings were created. More recently over the last few years, after Apple paved the way with the iphone and HLS (HTTP Live Streaming), the wider uptake of powerful new video-enabled retail devices like tablets, games consoles and smartphones, led to the current mass deployment of HTTP Adaptive Bit Rate Streaming (ABRS). This is now enabling many new services to be delivered over the open Internet. With this technology, content providers are targeting end users directly, using CDN service providers as technology partners that enable them to cut out the TV platform in the middle. Pay TV operators have responded by developing multiscreen services themselves and where possible exploiting their superior premium content offerings to defend against cord cutting to pure play OTT providers. But to maintain their edge and continue to defend against churn, operators need to provide compelling advantages to broadcasters and content owners through their ability to deliver video assets cost effectively to as many users as possible with optimum QoS. At Broadpeak, we believe that cable and telecom operators are now particularly well placed to compete both with traditional pay TV platforms and younger or emerging OTT operators in the multiscreen world. They have even more potential now with their unique platforms to deliver pay TV or broadcast content to multiple devices within the home, while keeping tight control over bandwidth and CDN costs. Network service providers can either deliver services under their own brand (as an extension of existing services) or use the content provider s own brand. A key point is that in both cases, local operators can almost always provide a higher quality service across their own network than any global CDN service provider. They are better placed to master the content delivery process and keep latency to a minimum through their control over the local access, backhaul and core network infrastructure. This white paper will first characterize what IPTV has been until recently and continue with the challenges and opportunities for operators brought about by the plethora of new retail devices and the business models around these, introduced by OTT Service providers. We then look at how IPTV is evolving to meet these challenges and how this is making IP network operators so well suited to offer a high quality pay TV service to their subscribers. www.broadpeak.tv Page 2/8
What IPTV has been until now Triple-play by telcos Telcos operating in highly competitive markets were first to see the potential of IP networks to deliver converged services with the advantage of interactivity. The first IPTV services were then introduced to differentiate Telcos from other network operators and ISPs. Even if at that time it was confined to Video on Demand and, only in a few cases, capable of providing a full linear pay TV offering. In some markets, IPTV was largely a defensive mechanism encouraging subscribers to retain the fixed telephony service rather than migrate to a mobile-only alternative. DVB based broadcast in terms of quality. When unicast streaming was applicable, as in a VoD sessions, the RTSP protocol was particularly efficient and robust. As RTSP streaming servers have full control over sessions, operators had better visibility over the Quality of Experience. There was also an immediate constraint in that the bit rate required to deliver high quality video was greater than that available to many Telco subscribers. IPTV was therefore confined to consumers sufficiently close to a DSLAM or those fortunate enough to have direct access to fibre. At the same time improvements in compression with the mass adoption of H.264 video compression technology were reducing the bit rate required to sustain a given video quality and so extending the range of eligible IPTV services. «Despite owning and managing their networks, IPTV pioneers had an uphill battle over Quality of Experience, as user expectations were so much higher for a TV-based service than for best-effort Internet services, such as internet browsing.» Cable operators with DOCSIS 3.0 Telcos were not alone for long in exploiting IP for video. Cable operators were also quick to spot the IP opportunity, since their access networks could be engineered relatively easily to provide an IP return path, unlike their satellite or terrestrial competitors. They were able to introduce IP data services via the evolving DOCSIS standards alongside broadcast video, and over time start migrating VoD and even in some cases linear TV services to the latest DOCSIS 3.0 platforms. So whether from Telcos or cable operators, early IPTV was almost always part of a triple-play offering that also included voice and data. The battle for Quality of Experience Despite owning and managing their networks, pioneers had an uphill battle over Quality of Experience, as user expectations were so much higher for a TV-based service than for best-effort Internet services, such as internet browsing. Such services were usually consumed on PC screens at the time, since in the early days of IPTV neither smartphones nor tablets existed and games consoles were not connected. The very first IPTV implementations often depended on video technologies that were little more than scaled up versions of tools used for hosting video-rich web sites. With hindsight, it is all the more impressive that these early services were able to get off the ground. RTSP streaming and IP Multicast Rapidly though, from around 2006, IP multicast implementations became robust enough for managed IP networks to deliver video streams that could start to rival Advanced content presentation However, one of the key motivations for operators in deploying IPTV services was that they could rapidly benefit from web-based technologies and display attractive VoD catalogues, for example in the form of a Web page tailored for TV. In the same vein, EPG services for live content were easier to enrich with imagery or other metadata than in the case of a satellite operator. Enhanced interactivity IPTV operators were also able to hit the ground running when it came to advanced interactive features such as non-linear TV. From the outset, IPTV STBs came in versions that supported PVR functionality and time-shifting, putting them on a par with the high-end devices from cable and satellite providers. Fast channel change and packet loss recovery The early challenges of video delivery over IP were met one by one. Switching channels on an un-optimized IP based service could at first take up to 8 seconds, which was totally unacceptable. But to leapfrog existing Digital TV channel change times of about 2 seconds, fast channel-change was made available via dedicated servers that typically stored low-resolution versions of every optimized channel. So when switching to one of these channels, decoders could display some images within less than a second, while the multicast stream was still being joined and queued, but not yet ready for display. The same servers also often helped the STB or gateway device recover from the packet losses that have always plagued connectionless packet switched protocols www.broadpeak.tv Page 3/8
like UDP/IP that lack inherent support for guaranteed packet delivery. In this case, any CPE device that sees an error in a data packet would simply request it to be resent from the dedicated server that carries a cache of all transmitted video, typically located close to the consumers. Forward error correction Then to enhance the stream quality further, some operators used Forward Error Correction (FEC) on live TV, either to complement, or in some cases avoid, the need to retransmit packets at all. There are different versions of FEC offering varying levels of protection against packet loss during transmission. Typically, though FEC adds 15% to a stream s bandwidth requirement by embedding extra information so that in the event of loss of just a few binary data bits, the software on an STB can reconstruct all the packets and then decode the video without any disturbing artefacts. Always connected devices From the outset, IPTV has enjoyed another advantage over previous broadcast technologies in that the IP devices are always connected. So IPTV operators can offer all of the same sophisticated STB features that DVB broadcasters can, but with the addition of network centric services. French IPTV providers pioneered offerings incorporating a complete range of catch-up services available on the TV. New devices, new business models Development of HTTP Adaptive Bitrate Streaming Despite being easily connectable, retail devices like tablets, smartphones, smart TVs and game consoles still need an efficient and reliable way of receiving streamed content when bandwidth availability varies. This has been a core driver for the development of HTTP Adaptive Bit Rate Streaming (ABRS). All new devices come ready to display unicast ABRS out of the box. Content and devices: the kings A traditional CPE device with multicast/rtsp capabilities can be made to seem cumbersome in this context. Such a STB or media gateway can become a slowly sinking island in an ocean of bright new screens and devices. Big global players with deep enough pockets to provide exclusive premium content are enriching the plethora of new retail devices flooding the market. This rising OTT threat is being compounded by the massive marketing campaigns behind new devices, from the likes of Apple for its ipad, or Samsung for its Galaxy range of devices. These campaigns are orders of magnitude bigger than almost any existing operator can afford. The go-direct strategy of content providers New devices and new video delivery technologies have created an opportunity for content providers to go direct to consumers through the use of CDN service providers. Service platforms have evolved from proprietary complex systems dealing with Conditional Access (CAS), Subscriber database, Content database and Portal management to simpler modules inspired by Web technologies. This explains that what was referred to as a Service Platform is now called a CMS. There are still significant issues to be resolved by content providers if they are to fully reap the rewards of this brave new world. As discussed above, live TV really doesn t scale well in an OTT environment where video delivery is based on unicast streaming. The audience of an event can grow rapidly within just a few minutes during popular events such as Sport or Breaking news. Peaks in demand are hard to deal with when the system must scale with the number of users. Dimensioning an IP network for peak demand is costprohibitive. Global CDN service providers offer a significant part of the solution, but cannot guarantee the quality of service once streams are delivered to the local operator s network. Difficulties for traditional IPTV operators As the stakes rise so the innovation and renewal cycles shorten. All stakeholders need to attain greater velocity and more agility to stay in the game. It is becoming gradually harder for traditional IPTV ecosystems to catch-up for at least the following reasons: Operators difficulties are compounded by the extreme complexity of their environments. Legacy devices and middleware require specific projects for them to stay up to date and it is particularly challenging to keep these bespoke projects in synch with new OTT initiatives. As new services are rolled out, horizontal functions like billing usually require separate implementation in each of the two environments. The difficulties in meeting stringent Conditional Access System (CAS) requirements and device certifications have often made technologically conservative content owners harder to satisfy in the IP world. Even though the concerns have often been irrational, they have held many IPTV initiatives back. Scale is paramount for TV services. One-to-one unicast works well for delivery of niche content, or for services with small numbers of users. But it collapses under the traffic load generated by popular channels consumed by large numbers of subscribers running into the hundreds of thousands or millions. This is why OTT is so hard to scale for linear TV. IPTV avoids this problem through multicast delivery, ensuring that every link of an IP network carries just one copy of a given IP video packet. It is notable that pay TV operators such as BSkyB in the UK that currently www.broadpeak.tv Page 4/8
make at least some of their programming available OTT over the Internet have realized they will need to deploy IP multicasting if demand proliferates. This may confine their premium OTT offering to customers of their own broadband networks. In that case the service will have become enhanced IPTV rather than OTT, since it will be delivered entirely over their own managed infrastructure. In some specific cases, ABRS can provide better results in terms of video quality than traditional IPTV. Indeed for the latter, bandwidth is fixed whereas ABRS enables this limit to be transcended when the network allows, delivering a higher video quality and a better user experience. It would be incongruous for a quality assured pay TV viewing experience, delivered by a given operator, to be worse than for the content watched for free over the same operator s open Internet service. But as we will see, IPTV can now also benefit from ABRS to deliver an improved quality of experience while containing costs for operators. The expected lifespan of an operator device is typically at least 5 years. Many IP operators have millions of such hardware devices in the field that have not yet been amortized. ABRS won t work with legacy STBs that usually do not support DRM content protection. These STBs have typically cost 10s of millions of dollars to deploy. So in many cases operators will need to maintain two headends to successfully address other screens beyond the main living room TV. How enhanced IPTV can address the challenges Multi-screen delivery The strategy for any video content provider must now include multi-screen delivery. Users are now demanding access from all their devices and there is growing momentum behind companion screen applications that add value to existing services through increased levels of interactivity and synchronization with the primary screen. This requires development of new software to enhance companion screen activity and enable new revenue generating applications such as targeted advertising via the secondary device. Operators must assemble a unified platform for multiscreen to keep costs under control and offer a consistent user experience across all devices. Features like unified content search will become standard requirements for any multiscreen operator. In a multiscreen pay TV environment the STB must become a device just like any other and will probably be smarter and smaller than at present, in the form perhaps of a wireless HDMI stick that subscribers can add to second, third or even fourth screens. Enhanced IPTV will enable different terminals to be combined in interactive services that play to the strengths of each. For example second screen applications can use audio watermarking to automatically synchronize activities with the main screen. An operator that deploys this can offer immersive experiences like interactive gaming. There is also little doubt that play-along apps have a promising future, but there is still all to play for in the competition between program makers, TV stations and pay TV operators to provide these apps. With a carefully designed and unified approach, enhanced IPTV operators will be realistic contenders with a good chance of winning this battle. Security Attitudes from the content owner perspective are evolving as this community realizes it must fully embrace legal IP delivery to help eradicate illicit content consumption. Enhanced IPTV can offer cost effective security so that complete TV Channel line-ups are secured with an all HTTP / DRM protection mechanism. HD for all Universal access to high definition content can be achieved through smart delivery techniques involving cache storage distributed across devices provided by the operator and those purchased by the subscriber. In section 6 we will discuss how our technology called nanocdn extends the benefits of CDNs right to the home for smart end-to-end content delivery. Early IPTV services pioneered network based PVR services, reducing both CAPEX and OPEX for operators. Today, enhanced IPTV can seamlessly spread DVR functionality across the cloud and devices in the home. All systems can be synchronized constantly without users needing to manage this or be aware of the underlying complexity. Such technologies will help IPTV operators deploy powerful and cost effective hybrid storage platforms spanning the network and the home. Users are now demanding access from all their devices and there is growing momentum behind companion screen applications that add value to existing services through increased levels of interactivity and synchronization with the primary screen. www.broadpeak.tv Page 5/8
Unique assets of operators to deliver enhanced IPTV Control over the network and the home gateway Telecom and cable operators are uniquely placed to manage the entire end-to-end technical infrastructure required to deliver pay TV services. Even if the screen used for final consumption of the TV service is on a retail device, the network operator provides the managed network and the home gateway that can use any combination of the assets described in this chapter to ensure the best possible user experience. Content aggregation Operators can aggregate the assets of other content providers either under their own brand, the content provider s brand, or a co-branding arrangement. The aggregated content can come from pay TV providers, private TV stations, public broadcasters, movie studios or any other source. In this way IPTV operators can avoid concerns over cannibalization, since it in their interests to promote all the aggregated content, irrespective of where it came from. The end consumer can use a single application to seamlessly access all the content. Relationship with the end-user At the same time networks and service operators can obtain a deep understanding of the end-user through the direct and global relationship they have, covering different communication, entertainment and smart home services. This relationship also has great advantages for billing. Subscriber billing is one of the most difficult service aspects for OTT providers to get right, since they often lack a direct one-to-one relationship with the customer. Operators already have this in place, so that all the technical challenges with security as well as the tax and regulatory issues have already been resolved. But most importantly of all, subscribers have already provided payment details to telecom or cable operators. Because of all these points, operators are in a unique position to offer extended triple play services with already proven ability to raise ARPU and reduce churn. With all these assets, operators can solve many of the content providers current problems and become so much more than dumb pipes. All these unique advantages must be brought into play in a coherent way for operators to be able to succeed in today s competitive TV landscapes. Broadpeak s solutions for implementing enhanced IPTV Broadpeak can help operators deploy enhanced IPTV by leveraging the home network alongside the multicast capability of the operator s infrastructure to deliver live TV in a scalable way. We can extend the benefits of multicast CDNs right to the home through nanocdn and bring adaptive streaming right to the STB with our C-CAS technology. The nanocdn technology The nanocdn concept pioneered by Broadpeak was first demonstrated at IBC2012. It extends CDN performance and scalability right to the end device by recruiting CPE equipment such as gateways that have storage in the customer s home. In effect the access circuit becomes part of the CDN network, which means that end-to-end bandwidth consumption as far as the home remains constant irrespective of usage, even at peak times, and no matter how many devices are accessing the streams within the home. To make this work, Broadpeak modifies the streams at the point of ingest into the nanocdn, and then within the home network a small piece of software undoes those changes so that the video can be viewed. The concept is easy to trial by putting just a single channel on a nanocdn to leverage the multicast capacity. Then a single server transforms unicast to multicast for that stream. A portal accessed by home devices lets subscribers choose content, pointing to a central server that in turn routes requests to the right streams. If a live stream becomes one of the most popular channels, it automatically gets switched to multicast. An application on the Home Gateway then transforms multicast back to unicast so as to keep the final device (say an ipad or an Xbox One) unchanged. This solution can mix unicast delivery for on-demand and PVR in the cloud. Timeshifting solutions based partly on storage on the home gateway and partly on storage on servers can also be integrated. Broadpeak s nanocdn solution also improves the quality of service for live content coming from OTT platforms. NanoCDN allows operators to address these issues in a higher network layer, allowing finer tuning of the user experience. By putting every last bit of bandwidth to work, nanocdn helps operators deliver the best possible service from their network and therefore plays a vital role in extending the eligibility of the IPTV package. www.broadpeak.tv Page 6/8
The C-CAS technology Until now though IPTV operators have been prevented from deploying ABRS because this would have required expensive upgrades to their existing set top box populations. Such investment could not be justified for ABRS on its own. Broadpeak has now met this need with its patented Conditional Access System (CAS) Compliant Adaptive Streaming, or C-CAS, technology, which enables pay TV operators to exploit ABRS protocols to their existing set top boxes. C-CAS works with the CAS already deployed on the legacy STBs and requires no firmware changes. A key point is that C-CAS delivers maximum quality through use of server side technology. Broadpeak s BkS100 VOD servers automatically select the appropriate streaming quality based on available bandwidth, thereby delivering the best Quality of Experience possible. With most ABRS deployments the device player adapts to streaming conditions and to its own CPU capacity by selecting one from several available bit streams, which means the device is in control. By having the BKS100 decide the bitrate delivered to the home, C-CAS technology puts the operator back in control of the quality so that he can assign different quality levels to different services (Catch-Up vs. premium for instance). HD for all By partially caching content on the broadband gateway or STB, a network service provider gains the unique ability to deliver higher quality video than the access network is able to transport. Today this can enable High Definition services on limited DSL access. Since Broadpeak s nanocdn can enable High Definition TV today for any network it will also be capable of delivering TV services in UHD and beyond tomorrow. The time is now! Solutions such as those outlined in the previous section will benefit operators delivering their own services and content. They are equally applicable to content providers going direct to the consumer, in which case the operator turns its network into a CDN acting on the rights owner s behalf. Under this win-win scenario, the content providers benefit from operator s unique assets at a highly competitive price. Whether going direct to the customer or on a wholesale basis through an operator, the enhanced IPTV platform will be highly attractive for broadcasters and content owners, since it will be highly cost effective, while being competitive in terms of both quality and capacity. Through technologies such as nanocdn and C-CAS, E-IPTV will be the best platform when it comes to maximize the QoE of premium content. For telecom and cable operators the message is clear. If they are not already doing so they must act to ensure that their platforms are capable of providing the benefits of E-IPTV. In the next white paper in this series, Broadpeak will be commissioning Benjamin Schwarz to explain the business and technical opportunities offered by an umbrella CDN approach, enabling operators to select the CDN that best meets their subscriber s needs at a given time according to business priorities and changing traffic patterns. This will further increase the value of E-IPTV. www.broadpeak.tv Page 7/8
Broadpeak designs and manufactures video delivery components for Content Providers and Network Service Providers deploying IPTV, Cable, OTT and Mobile services. Its portfolio of solutions and technologies powers the delivery of movies, television programming and other video content over managed networks and the internet for viewing on any type of device. The company s systems and services help operators increase market share and improve subscriber loyalty with superior quality of experience. Broadpeak supports all of its customers worldwide, from simple installations to large delivery systems reaching capacities of several million of simultaneous streams. Broadpeak systems leverage the long legacy of Technicolor s excellence in broadcast and broadband content delivery from where the founders and technology originated. Broadpeak is headquartered in Rennes, France. 80 avenue des Buttes de Coësmes 35 700 Rennes France Tel: +33 (0)2 22 74 03 50 Email: contact@broadpeak.tv www.broadpeak.tv